The preparation of food over an open flame is one of the oldest ways to prepare food and is a long standing American tradition. In furtherance of this tradition, numerous types of outdoor grills have been developed for fixedly supporting a cooking surface over an outdoor fire. Many simple assemblies have been developed which include side supports, such as rocks, bricks or other non-flammable materials to support a mesh cooking surface to be used as a grill.
Some cooking assemblies provide portable upright stanchions which can support a cooking surface over a fire source wherein the cooking surface can be adjusted vertically and rotated away from the fire source. Although the foregoing assemblies permit height adjustable cooking surfaces over an open flame, they do not accommodate the cooking of more substantial food items. The foregoing assemblies also do not allow for the height adjustment necessary to obtain optimal cooking conditions because their limited height does not provide for sufficient temperature variance. The foregoing assemblies are also very unstable in operation and their stability is often conditioned on ideal soil and weather conditions. The foregoing assemblies are easily affected by weather factors such as wind conditions and the cooking surfaces are often rendered unstable due to the soil and weather conditions which can lead to ruined food being displaced or even dropped from the cooking surface. Also, the foregoing assemblies generally require the portable upright support stanchion to be set up too close to the fire source such that the entire apparatus heats up considerably, and is therefore dangerous to adjust once cooking has begun.
The cooking assembly of the present invention provides a permanent and plumb support system for supporting the cooking assembly wherein the support system can be used in a myriad of outdoor soil conditions such that ideal soil conditions are not required. The cooking assembly can be used year round in a fixed location or moved to other permanent support systems and allows for the cooking of more substantial food items with 360° rotation and infinite height adjustment which is described in greater detail below. The present cooking assembly can also be broken down when not in use for easy storage.